US President Donald Trump announced on Monday he would make a prime-time address and visit the US-Mexico border this week as the partial federal government shutdown entered its 17th day after a funding impasse over his demand for money to build a border wall.
The moves indicate the Republican president has no intention of backing off his pledge to build a wall that he believes will stem irregular immigration and drug trafficking. Democrats in Congress say a wall would be expensive, inefficient and immoral.
However, pressure to reach a deal is likely to grow as the effects of the shutdown are felt, including possible cuts in food stamp programmes and delayed tax refunds.
Vice President Mike Pence said White House lawyers were evaluating the possibility that Trump could declare a national emergency in order to secure alternate funding for the wall but that Trump had not made a decision on using that tactic. It was unclear what basis Trump could use to declare a national emergency, and legal experts expected challenges if Trump were to move forward with the declaration.
Trump planned to visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday, White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced on Twitter without providing details. The visit likely will highlight security concerns pushed by the administration as justification for the wall.
A short while after Sanders’s tweet, Trump tweeted that he will address the nation on Tuesday at 9pm Eastern time (02:00 GMT on Wednesday) to discuss what he called a humanitarian and national security crisis on the southern US border.
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